A blog dedicated to model building and painting. It has evolved from 40k, and now encompasses 30k, historical, and scale model building.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Ultramarines & Battle For Salvation

My wife and I decided to head up to New York for the Battle For Salvation tournament. So lots of gaming for me, and lots of time in New York city for her. We needed a break from DC, so the tournament came at a perfect time. As is now tournament standard for me, I don't have a fully painted force, or at least a fully painted one that I want to run. I had to paint another tac squad. Fortunately for me I was out of generic plastic marines, so the new tac box was required.

I've read a lot of disappointment online about the new plastic tactical squad box. I am a hobbyist, and for me the new tac squad is just what I wanted. It is familiar, but at the same time crisper and with better poses. I love some of the new details, like the MK 8 backpack see on my sergeant above. I love how washes cling to the crevices making it really easy to highlight. Now, I wish there were no purity seals, since I've never really liked those details, but these are easy to paint. (mine are not done by the way--just the first thin coat of paint on)

How are these guys armed? With the new stuff obviously! I don't know how useful grav weapons are, but I armed the sergeant and the specialist with them just to paint up something different. The grav sculpts are a little weird, but I am happy to see something different on marines.

Now I just have to finish painting and base them....and put transfers on...and weather them.....

Did I mention that I might just grab my Blood Angels instead...oh the choices. At least the BA dex is not digital. (my SM dex is the ipad version and I can't keep it from crashing)

Lenses look complex, but that is an optical illusion. A very easy way to paint them is to paint mechanicum red over the entire surface. Then use orange red half way down, followed by pure orange at the very bottom of the lens. A single white dot at the top left of the lens makes all the difference. Ultimately it is the most important part of the process.

Thanks Secundus. I am trying to integrate airbrushing into miniature painting in a way that keeps the minis look painted if you know what mean. This means that edges need to be crisped up at the end to avoid the softness of the airbrush.

The basic process is to us an airbrush with controlled flow to highly the model, taking care to leave a lot of contrast. The next step (I sometimes omit this) Is to spray on purity seal, and then do very carful targeted washes using nuln oil. The idea is that the semi-gloss keeps the paint from acting like a wash, spreading out evenly. The paint basically beads, and stays in the crevices. After that I use latham medium and my highlight colors to tighten up the edges. The black in the recesses is key, as this pushes the colors back, and takes away the fuzziness that airbrushing creates.